


You Left the Story Blue

by navaan



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series), Dimension 20: Crown of Candy
Genre: Arranged Marriage after True Love Was Lost, Bittersweet, F/F, Family Issues, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Ghosts, Grief/Mourning, Haunting, Love Confessions, M/M, Memories, POV Female Character, Pining, Romantic Gestures, past canonical character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Queen Caramelinda misses Lazuli even years after her death and remembers their love. So does Lazuli from behind mist and mirrors.
Relationships: Amethar Rocks & Caramelinda Rocks, Caramelinda Rocks/Lazuli Rocks
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2020





	You Left the Story Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LamiaCalls](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LamiaCalls/gifts).



The first time Caramelinda held her two twin daughters, she felt like crying for all the emotions that were groping her in that Moment. There they were her, two delightful little babies, one a bright red, one a jewel-like licorice black, asleep after the ordeal of being looked and cooed at on their first day on earth. She loved them already with the heart of the mother, but the smallest tiniest part of her had hoped to see a spark of blue in their skin, their hair, their eyes. 

It was a desperate and selfish wish and she regretted it and hid it away in a dark blue corner of her caramel heart. 

There was nothing to be disappointed at. Her two little babies were perfect as they were. And if she had hoped for a glimpse of their aunt Lazuli in their little faces instead of their fathers unmistakable cheekbones, then that was Caramelinda's shortcoming, not theirs.

A smile lit up on her face when both her little licorice princesses yawned at her and she laughed when their red and black pairs of eyes settled on her, seeing her mother laughing for the first time.

Little Ruby and little Jet had already received their names to reflect the Candy kind they were — and like Amathar both would be first of their names in this family. 

And if either of them would become the next archmage or a great general or a devout cleric — or a warrior like their father — was something only time would tell and Caramelinda would be proudly watching them grow and come into their own.

That evening, Caramelinda stepped in front of her mirror to look at her own caramel brown face and the crown with colorful candy gems that sometimes bore heavy on her brow, and saw the lines of exhaustion on her face. She felt perhaps a little sad for the fact that today she was full of happiness. A part of her that would always mourn her late wife had thought she’d never be this happy again.

But Lazuli wouldn’t have begrudged her this joy.

Caramelinda had born two healthy princesses and the line of Rocks was secured — but more than that her heart was welling with love for her growing family.

For her babies.

Even for Amethar who had stood by her bed for the whole ordeal and who hadn’t stopped smiling once since the birth of his daughters. Sometimes she could see him for the kind man he could be, for the good man he was trying to be every day - even when recklessness and disinterest kept him from being the king she wished he would be.

Watching all these conflicting thoughts reflected in her own expression, she spoke to the flat surface of the mirror that in the only half-lit room looked like a silvery pane of cold water to her. 

"I wish you were here," she whispered. "I wish you could be with me to teach my daughters all they need to know to face the world out there." 

But even in the loneliness of her room she couldn't bring herself to say out loud what dark thoughts, what grieving injustice was rearing its head inside her every time she looked at her husband: "I wish they were yours. I wish they were ours. I wish you had survived the war and I was your queen."

Amethar was doing his best to be a good husband in his own ways, but he was too much of a warrior still to be a patient, attentive king and they had only started to work out in recent months who they were and who they could be to each other. She was grateful that he never pushed for anything from her, as he - much like Caramelinda - was grieving for his sisters, among them Lazuli.

She nearly gasped when she realized Amethar was standing in the door, holding a sniveling little bundle of a baby in his arms. She hadn't even noticed Ruby crying.

Had he heard?

Could he guess her thoughts? 

"She would have been proud of them. She would have loved them. Lazuli. She always tried to teach me things when I was little," he said.

It was likely he had heard but he gave no sign of offence.

She smiled and she even felt it. It was so strange to see Amethar the Unfallen, the only of the children of the House of Rocks to have survived the Ravening War, hold the little princess who was barely a day old and think: "He loves them already. He loved you too, Lazuli. That's perhaps the only thing connecting us."

"Lazuli would have loved them and taught them," she told him. 

"All my sisters would have," he replied and nodded.

Ruby cried a little louder, a heartbreaking little sob, as she reached up to grasp Amethar's bright green chin beard. 

An answering cry came from the other room where the Princess Jet had woken to find she’d been left behind.

"We should return your charge, Amethar, it sounds like her little twin misses her company already and is ready to cause a riot to find her."

“Warrior spirit,” he said and laughed. “Just like her father. You think she’ll go into a rage?”

“Too early to tell,” she reminded him and hooked her arm into his, looking at Ruby who still pulled his beard with her small red fingers. He didn’t seem to mind.

They walked over side by side, like husband and wife, like king and queen, parents out of their depths in how to navigate this political marriage that had brought them together while the ghosts of the past still lived in the castle.

The memory of the brilliant woman that had been his sister and her wife was something they shared and also stood between them.

She imagined Lazuli smiling at them from the mirror, but didn't dare turn back to confirm it was only wishful thinking. Her beloved wife would never return to her, but she had a family to cherish.

And yet from the corner of her eye she saw a blue shadow in the silver.

* * *

Jet and Ruby grew fast and they liked to jump and run and terrorize the guards. They had much of their father in them, but also Caramelinda was reminded of herself when she had been a coltish girl not sure of her place in the world and how she’d loved to run wild and test her boundaries.

"And then Rococoa raised her sword and said: _Amethar you have to be better than this. There is strength in sweetness after all._ And Lazuli laughed at me and helped me up from the ground and told me I should study magic because then perhaps I would have seen the blow coming..."

"What was she like?" little Ruby asked with wide eyes. "The archmage? Aunt Lazuli?"

Jet was moving her little fist to imitate the motions her father had used to illustrate Rococoa’s technique.

Slowly, with a hint of melancholia, Amethar smiled. "She was something. There’s no-one who didn’t respect her. Ask your mother. She knew her well."

Caramelinda froze, stunned, they talked of it sometimes but not in front of the girls, but smiled when her daughters' eyes widened. They were already becoming interested in the tales of the brilliant women of the House of Rocks. One day they would hear and learn of Lazuli and her work, her heroism, her brilliance - and also learn of her passionate love for her young wife, Caramelinda.

“Mother?” Jet asked. “Did you know Lazuli and the sisters?”

“Yes,” she answered and smiled at Amethar with a sadness that echoed his grief for the people they had lost. “I knew them. I knew Lazuli best of all.”

With the fingers of her right hand she touched a blue gem in the bracelet she wore. Lazuli had given it to her.

“How did you meet?” Ruby wanted to know.

“You be good now,” she answered, “and I will tell you all about it in the morning.”

She hadn't yet found the right words to tell that story even a decade after losing Lazuli.

On her way to bed after the children had been sent off to bed, she passed a mirror in the hallway and she could have sworn that in a swirl of blue shadows she saw Lazuli’s distinguished features gaze upon her smiling.

* * *  
_Back then_

The first time Caramelinda met Lazuli she had been an awkward young lady, always being pestered by her mother to hold herself straighter, to smile more amiably, or behave like a duchess.

At the time Carmelinda had come into her inheritance only recently when her father and older brother had died in skirmish, leaving her Duchess of Merengue and one of the most important women in all of the kingdom of Candia. Advisors were talking to her all day as if she was a child who had yet to learn to think for herself, teachers were trying to convince her to follow philosophies she didn’t believe in and her mother was talking about the prospects of marrying a Fructerian noble or building alliances at court. As Duchess of Meringue she was of the noblest lineage of Candia. Their family was one of the most powerful houses in the kingdom and it was Caramelinda’s duty to serve the duchy.

That was in fact the only reason they had come here to Muffinfield. 

Her mother hoped to introduce the new duchess to the heir to the throne, General Rococoa, eldest of the princesses. Like all her brilliant sisters she had already made a name for herself in Candia. She was a fierce warrior and had shown her strategic mind in battle countless times. From all Caramelinda had hear, she was a beauty but cut an imposing figure.

And it was true.

Even years later she remembered walking into the room with one of her ladies at her side, seeing the tall chocolate woman with the contrasting white hair towering above nearly anyone else in the room. 

But it wasn’t her who caught Caramelinda’s eye. It was the woman with the dark blue hair and wonderful blue raspberry skin at the other side of the room who was speaking to one of the Meringue advisors in a deep and calm voice that would be burned into her memory forever. She was also a tall woman and held herself like the general. At first glance, she wasn’t at all what you'd expect from a scholar or archmage, but Lazuli too had made a name for herself already and there was no mistaking her with those dark blue colors and her wizard robes. When she turned to look towards Caramelinda, her deep indigo eyes caught hers above her silver rimmed glasses and sparked with a fire unlike anything that the young duchess had ever seen. 

A spark of blue and magic. 

Lazuli walked over to her like compelled, freezing Caramelinda in her spot. It was quite unlike her to be so awkward around other nobles even when she was nervous - but this was a princess of a realm, a hero, one of their greatest scholars.

"Duchess," Lazuli greeted her formally. "I am pleased to finally make your acquaintance."

“You are?” she asked surprised, aware that she should bow and return the formal greeting. Before she could, Lazuli grasped her by the hand and pulled her fingers to her lips to press a kiss to her knuckles. 

“I am. It’s like I waited to meet you.” With a complicated move of her hand and muttering something under her breath that sounded _ancient_ , Lazuli created a peach colored marzipan flower and held it out to Caramelinda.

The statement made no sense at all, but it sent her heart aflutter. Nobody would forget a remarkable moment of magic like that, or the attention of archmage Lazuli. Even though it would be a whole year before she met the archmage again she couldn’t stop thinking about it and their short talk after that, their dance at the following banquet.

She preserved the flower

* * * 

“They have magic,” Caramelinda told Amethar after Ruby and Jet had managed to run from their lessons again. “They keep slipping away.”

“Because they’re not interested in books?”

She rolled her eyes. He was not a book person himself and it was so like him to excuse their daughters behavior because he was sympathetic. He did was she and Lapin asked of him, but sometimes she wished he would make more of an effort to rule and not leave it all to her. 

“Because they _have_. All of you Rocks do in a way. Candian magic…”

“Like Lazuli?” he asked and sounded neither offended nor surprised.

“Like Candia,” she said softly. She was a devout Bulbian, but she _had_ been married to the last Archmage of Candia and she knew the truth of some of the things that Lazuli had been working on, and what she had discovered along the way. There was arcane magic everywhere in Candia and Lazuli had taught Caramelinda to tap into it, with lessons, kisses and sometimes with laughter as they were pouring over scroll trying new spells together. Years after that first meeting Caramelinda had created a little Marzipan snowdrop for Lazuli and she knew her wife had carried it over her heart when she had died.

Her time with Lazuli had been magical.

Bit magic hadn’t died with her love...

One day Caramelinda would sit her girls down and teach them what she knew. For their protection and their future, and to keep Lazuli’s work alive.

* * *

_Back then_

Their second meeting was different. 

Lazuli hadn’t taken her eyes off Caramelinda even once during the stately dinner and Caramelinda hadn’t been able to look away.

Nobody failed to notice the princess’s preoccupation with the young duchess and the story of their infatuation reached even the ears of Carmelinda’s mother before Caramelinda had even returned home. 

What her mother didn’t know was that Lazuli had already followed up her forward looks with a formal invitation to come to court. Caramelinda had accepted without hesitation and not one week later ended up walking side by side with Lazuli in the grove outside the castle instead of being introduced to the rest of the family. Lazuli’s company was too enchanting for her to even question this — she had heard much about the House of Rocks but truly she was thinking only about Lazuli. Lazuli, who made her heart flutter, and her sin prickle, who made her feel like she was melting just by looking at her and who had been in her dreams every night since that dinner.

“Why didn’t you invite me to Castle Candy before? Why didn’t we meet anywhere for so long.”

Lazuli hesitated and then smiled that warm blue smile again, they had reached the grove of the Sugar Plum fairy and it was a mystical, beautiful place, but it made her skin prickle with something else than love and nervous jitters.. “Would you believe me if I said that I wasn’t sure if I was good enough for you? That you deserved better?”

She didn’t

She couldn’t imagine it.

How could someone so driven, so beautiful and brilliant think they were not good enough?

In time Caramelinda would learn that in truth Lazuli _always_ knew her own worth, never hesitated if she didn’t think the price of impulsiveness was too great and she _never_ thought a task was too big to be undertaken. Had love made her insecure?

Never.

But then it had been Caramelinda, finally feeling like a duchess who could make her own choices and sure in her own desire, who pulled Lazuli into a kiss.

* * *

In her nightstand she kept the collection of letters Lazuli wrote her from the front during the war, bundled up with blue ribbon. Her blue wedding band was knotted into it. Sometimes she took out the letters, just to see the beloved handwriting, the blue ink speaking to her in her lover’s now silenced voice.

With distance and the wisdom of age and years of ruling Candia, Caramelinda had learned to read between the lines.

The shadow moved in the mirror and there she was - for a moment a glimpse beyond the mist revealed the tall form of Lazuli, adorned in the robes of the archmage.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Caramelinda asked, realizing for the first time that this wasn’t just her imagination, but her wife, trapped on the other side of the mist, forever removed from the physical world Caremlinda still lived in. A tear rolled down her cheek.

Lazuli smiled sadly and gave a short nod but didn’t answer.

Could she speak?

Could ghosts talk?

“You knew how it would end. You gave me a chance to find love somewhere else and yet there will never be love like the love I feel for you, Lazuli.”

Lazuli shook her head silently and pointed out the door, towards the rooms of her children and smiled, the bright proud smile that she had smiled on their wedding day and in the blur of tears, Caramelinda saw Lazuli shine brightly and throw her a kiss before vanishing into the mist, leaving the mirror a glassy mirror and Caramelinda staring at her own reflection.

“Protect them, my love. Teach them. They are the future and only you could be the future, queen of my heart, Queen of Candia. There is strength in sweetness. You were the sweetest of them all and you will be the strongest,” a voice whispered in the darkness, too quiet to be real, too far away to be _alive_ \- and yet unmistakably Lazuli.

“Damn you,” Caremlinda whispered and leaned her head against the mirror. “Damn you.”

What she couldn’t say was: _Come back to me, my love. Teach them with me. I will forever yearn for your sweet strength by my side, your lips on mine, you touch on my skin._

What she meant was: _I will always love you. ___

__That night her dreams were filled with memories of Lazuli, of the many times she had walked into the workshop to find her wife hunched over tomes, tired and unwilling to leave her research. Caremlinda had coaxed her away with kisses and promises of a warm marriage bed without fail._ _

__“My love for you is forever,” Lazuli had promised, sure she would have to go off to war soon and Caremlinda had whispered her name over and over again while passions grew and kisses grew fierce._ _

__When she woke from this dream, she felt calm and settled._ _

__Their love was still alive, even if Lazuli was not._ _

__* * *_ _

___Another decade later_ _ _

__On the 7th day of Bloomdawn she walked down the long aisle in the rebuilt dome inside the rebuilt and redecorated dome of the spirits of Calorum - formerly of the Bulbian Church. She was wearing a wonderful stately dress of pink candy cotton and pulled a long cloak behind her. On her lapel she wore a peach-colored marzipan flower -- and only she knew what it signified._ _

__To the left and right there were aristocrats of all shapes and sizes who had come from the six lands to watch the coronation of the Emperor and Empress. Outside the crowds were cheering._ _

__Much had changed since they had come to Comida, so Amethar could finally take the throne just as the previous Emperor, his friend Uvano had wanted._ _

__It was a day of celebration and everyone seemed to need this, too._ _

__They had lost so much._ _

__Jet was buried in the fields of Candia and had joined her aunts on the other side of the veil._ _

__Like Ruby, Caramelinda had started to see glimpses of black in the mirror, sometimes though she heard her whispers in the shadows._ _

__But only Lazuli and now only rarely still appeared to her in mirrors._ _

__They had killed the Sugar-Plum Fairy and upset the boundaries of the afterlife further._ _

__Even now, she thought she could see Lazuli in the colorful sugar glass of the high windows they had asked for._ _

__Ruby stood waiting for them near the thrones and smiled. She had returned from the circus, more relaxed and happy, showing off her new tricks of shadow magic and Caramelinda was proud of her - and happy that she was free to follow her dreams, as Amethar’s older daughter had ascended the throne. Saccharine, stood beside Ruby as if they had always been sisters - and these days she wore the crown like someone who had grown into the role of leader. Caramelinda remembered how that felt._ _

__“I hope Cinammon won’t crash through the windows,” Amethar whispered._ _

__“She promised he’ll be flying over the city. He’s very gentle now,” Caremlinda whispered back and smiled at Liam who was standing close to the sisters, with Duchess Primsy Coldbottle by his side._ _

__Amethar placed the crown on her head and then sat down beside her, as the hall erupted into cheers and well wishes._ _

__The smell of Blue raspberry filled the room suddenly and when she looked to the side she realized that the sounds were fading and the room had frozen behind a mist of blue sugar. Lazuli stood beside her and she was smiling._ _

__Caramelinda looked up._ _

__“Lazuli,” she said, her voice thick._ _

__“Empress Caramelinda, Heart of the Realm, now you’re heart of the Concord, my sweet.” She bent down to kiss Caramelinda on the mouth as she had countless times before and she was there, real and tangible and _delicious_ as she had been in life._ _

__“You knew,” she whispered against blue hard candy lips._ _

__“That you would be Empress? Of course,” Lazuli whispered, “You are born to rule.” She looked through the mist at her brother. “And now Amethar has grown into his role, too.”_ _

__“I should be mad at you,” Caramelinda said. She felt like crying._ _

__“Don’t be mad,” Lazuli whispered and touched the little preserved marzipan flower at her lapel. “I will always be with you.”_ _

__The kissed, open-mouthed and intimately, like wife and wife._ _

__“I love you,” Lazuli whispered. Magic was swirling around them, making this more real than life, but Caramelinda knew it was only another stolen moment. She hoped now that magic was back there would be more…_ _

__The blue raspberry sent grew thicker, nearly suffocating as the mist swirled around her and then with a bell like laugh that sounded like yet, Lazuli, the mist and the scent were all gone and the deafening cheers were overwhelmingly loud as the people in the room als started to move again at once._ _

__She stood._ _

__Empress of the Concord._ _

__Heart of the realm._ _

__Love of Lazuli, who had given her life so all this could come to pass._ _

__The taste of blue raspberry lingered on her lips and she smiled at the people in the hall, her heart overflowing with love and the bittersweetness of existence._ _

__She touched the Marzipan flower._ _

__Lazuli’s love would forever linger._ _


End file.
